How does the saying go? “The book is better than the movie.”
In recent years, Hollywood has leaned hard into live action adaptations of comics, books, and video games. Whether it’s film giants like Marvel and DC or popular game adaptations, Sonic the Hedgehog and The Witcher, studios are banking on built-in fan bases. That means creators are now forced to walk a line: How do you honor the original while building something new for a broader audience?
Pushback is inevitable. But The Last of Us Season 2 faced something deeper: criticism from both fans of the game and newcomers to the show. What makes this case unique is that the show’s adapters are the same people who created the games.
Unlike many adaptations, the co-writers of The Last of Us Part II—Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross—were directly involved in writing Season 2. That should’ve been a win for fans who wanted the story done right. From the casting and structure to the show’s biggest creative choice—the death of Joel—audiences voiced frustration, and, in some cases, outrage.
Pedro Pascal’s Joel was killed off early in Season 2, just as he was in the game. While gamers were prepared, many still weren’t ready to see it on screen. Casual viewers were even more blindsided. Some stopped watching altogether. Others flooded review sites with negative ratings in an effort to tank the season.
There were other points of contention too: casting choices that didn’t match players’ expectations, Bella Ramsey’s physical continuity between seasons, and the pacing itself. Season 2 was shorter than the first—only seven episodes—and ended in the middle of Part II’s storyline. This gave the season a fragmented, incomplete feel. New characters like Abby and the expansion of the world to include the Seraphites and WLF further divided viewers.
And yet, much of this wasn’t Hollywood invention—it came straight from the source.
In an interview with Variety, Druckmann said, “It’s a different version of that story, but its DNA is in there.” Changes were made, yes, but they were made by the original writers. This wasn’t a studio rewriting a beloved game; this was the game’s creator adapting his own work for a different medium.
The structure of Season 2, the timeline shifts, the character choices—these were decisions made with intention. They weren’t just trying to recreate the game; they were trying to evolve it. Break it open. Let it breathe on screen.
In an Instagram post, Druckmann revealed he would be stepping away from HBO’s The Last of Us to focus on Naughty Dog (the game’s developer) and future projects.
Gross, on her personal Instagram, revealed she would also be leaving the show. Their exit raises serious questions about where the series goes next. Without the original architects of the game guiding the story, will the adaptation remain faithful to the emotional core that made The Last of Us what it was?
We often say we want faithful adaptations, but The Last of Us tested what that really means. The show didn’t stray from the hardest, most divisive moments of the game. And yet, when it told the story truthfully, many still rejected it.
So the question isn’t, “Was the game better than the show?” It’s this: If the original creators step away, will The Last of Us still feel like The Last of Us—or will Hollywood reshape it into something safer, easier, and far less true? At what point can fans be satisfied with a story retold through a different medium? Or will we continue to find reasons to complain, ensuring that future adaptations become less about honoring the original vision and more about appealing to how the masses think the story should go?
It’s a slippery slope. And it might just reshape The Last of Us in ways no one intended.
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